RED Steel seemed to have saved the best for last as they salvage d a 20-run win over defending champions Barbados Tridents to be crowned the 2015 Hero Caribbean Premier League Champions last night at the Queen’s Park Oval.The Trinidad and Tobago side playing at home won the toss and took the opportunity to bat, posting one of the largest totals of this year’s CPL, 178-5 from 20 overs.
Kamran Akmal received the Hero-of-the-Final award for his 60 off 46 balls which featured in a 102-run partnership with Cameron Delport who contributed 50 from 38 at the top of the order.
The only other solid contributor with the bat was the ever-dependent skipper Dwayne Bravo, with an unbeaten 29. Extras totalled 17 runs which played a vital role in T&T total.
Rayad Emrit with 2-25 and Kieron Pollard with 2-28 were the top bowlers for the Tridents while Robin Peterson finished with 1-24.
In the second half of the showdown, Barbados had an amazing start with Dwayne Smith (49) and Steven Taylor (20) at the top of the order. .
Barbados’ intensity was on point but the pressure caused their batters to misfire on numerous occasions and lose wickets. Misbah-ul-Haq with 21 along with Kyle Corbin’s 20 and unbeaten scores of 20 from Pollard and Jason Holder could only get Barbados to 158-4 when the overs expired.
However, with Trinidad being better in the field and clamping down on loose runs, Barbados’ strike rate fell and the required run rate continued to climb until it was too late.